The rocks of Britain's Lake District were laid down over millions of years of volcanic activity and sub-marine sedimentation, eroded by wind, rain, and the glaciers that scoured the river valleys, widened them, and formed the lakes. The towering fells there hide a violent past, including the struggle over a disputed border between England and Scotland, while the ruins of a Roman fort at Hardknott testify to an even earlier conflict with the Celtic Brigantes. From border settlements to market towns, mining, and the coming of the railways, this book takes the reader on a journey in words and pictures across the Lake District, illustrated with more than 200 antique postcards from Jan Dobrzynski's extensive collection. Here are soaring mountain ranges with evocative names like Skiddaw, Saddleback, Scafell, and Helvellyn, as well as tranquil tarns and lakes like Windermere, Coniston, Derwent, Ullswater, each with their sailboats and steamers, and all immortalized by past generations of photographers and artists.